The Ruling on Dealing in the Stock Market and Securities
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
This questioner says: Your Eminence the Shaykh! What is your view on dealing in the stock market, or what is called dealing in securities, where you pay a sum of ten thousand dirhams, and at the end of every month you receive an unspecified profit, and the shareholder bears a proportion of the loss up to forty percent if it occurs, and the company’s business is buying and selling securities in the global stock market? Please advise us, may Allah reward you with good, in this matter?
Answer:
Any transaction that guarantees a specific, stipulated profit, or an unknown profit, is not valid. The transaction must be a partnership with a shared share: a quarter, a half, or a third. It is not permissible with a known amount of dirhams or an unknown portion, whether in the stock market or otherwise. It must be a clear transaction with your brother: either you give him the money to work in it, with the profit divided between you by half, third, or quarter; or he works in it, and you assign him a share of the profits to work in, with the rest belonging to you. You say: “This money is with you; you have a quarter, a third, or a half, and the rest is mine.” He works in it. Or you and he agree that each of you works in the money, and the profit is divided between you. Or you specify an increase if his work is greater, saying: “You have two-thirds, and I have a third,” and you both work, but he works more than you, so the profit is known: two-thirds, a third, or a half. But with ignorance and risk, it is not permissible. It involves deception and danger, so it is not permissible. There must be no ignorance; there must be a profit fixed by half, third, or quarter—something known between them, or for the worker, with the rest for the owner of the money.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you with good.
This questioner says: Your Eminence the Shaykh! What is your view on dealing in the stock market, or what is called dealing in securities, where you pay a sum of ten thousand dirhams, and at the end of every month you receive an unspecified profit, and the shareholder bears a proportion of the loss up to forty percent if it occurs, and the company’s business is buying and selling securities in the global stock market? Please advise us, may Allah reward you with good, in this matter?
Answer:
Any transaction that guarantees a specific, stipulated profit, or an unknown profit, is not valid. The transaction must be a partnership with a shared share: a quarter, a half, or a third. It is not permissible with a known amount of dirhams or an unknown portion, whether in the stock market or otherwise. It must be a clear transaction with your brother: either you give him the money to work in it, with the profit divided between you by half, third, or quarter; or he works in it, and you assign him a share of the profits to work in, with the rest belonging to you. You say: “This money is with you; you have a quarter, a third, or a half, and the rest is mine.” He works in it. Or you and he agree that each of you works in the money, and the profit is divided between you. Or you specify an increase if his work is greater, saying: “You have two-thirds, and I have a third,” and you both work, but he works more than you, so the profit is known: two-thirds, a third, or a half. But with ignorance and risk, it is not permissible. It involves deception and danger, so it is not permissible. There must be no ignorance; there must be a profit fixed by half, third, or quarter—something known between them, or for the worker, with the rest for the owner of the money.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you with good.
Source
فتاوى المسجد الحرام (شعبان ١٤١٧ هـ) - ١ — archive.org (44:04)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.